tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14454470373055810102017-09-05T20:03:53.486-07:00Stephen Guy HardinAuthor of "If Being a Conservative Were Easy, There Wouldn't Be Any Liberals" and "Commies On Parade."Stephen Guy Hardinhttps://plus.google.com/100130587427333595998noreply@blogger.comBlogger142125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1445447037305581010.post-83898014709907673332016-01-28T12:47:00.001-08:002016-01-28T12:47:03.983-08:00Taliban taking aim at media targets<a href="http://www.qconline.com/news/world/taliban-taking-aim-at-media-targets/article_75d704cc-c5cb-11e5-86b9-c7abeca7d6c5.html#.Vqp-RDhJ0RI.blogger">Taliban taking aim at media targets</a>: KABUL — It was a cruel twist when many Afghans learned of last week’s deadly Taliban bombing of a bus from watching the Tolo TV network, the country’s largest private broadcaster. The victims were its employees.Stephen Guy Hardinhttps://plus.google.com/100130587427333595998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1445447037305581010.post-2496792869436758122015-10-08T13:20:00.001-07:002015-10-08T13:20:33.861-07:00Benghazi Committee: New Emails Show Clinton Promoted Blumenthal Interests in Libya | The Weekly Standard<a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/benghazi-committee-clinton-sought-blumenthal-advice-libya_1042610.html#.VhbQDji8soE.blogger">Benghazi Committee: New Emails Show Clinton Promoted Blumenthal Interests in Libya | The Weekly Standard</a>Stephen Guy Hardinhttps://plus.google.com/100130587427333595998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1445447037305581010.post-22583004712932878862015-09-10T11:17:00.001-07:002015-09-10T11:17:44.556-07:00DNC Chair Dings Obama, Dismisses O'Malley and Drudge | The Weekly Standard<a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/dnc-chair-knocks-obama-dismisses-drudge_1028221.html#.VfHJRXsdGfE.blogger">DNC Chair Dings Obama, Dismisses O'Malley and Drudge | The Weekly Standard</a>Stephen Guy Hardinhttps://plus.google.com/100130587427333595998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1445447037305581010.post-91945064190736238392015-09-03T12:34:00.001-07:002015-09-03T12:34:52.125-07:00Md. Man Charged After Tweeting ‘Kill All the White People’ « CBS DC<a href="http://washington.cbslocal.com/2015/09/03/md-man-charged-tweeting-kill-all-white-people/#.Veig2f9o7SI.blogger">Md. Man Charged After Tweeting ‘Kill All the White People’ « CBS DC</a>Stephen Guy Hardinhttps://plus.google.com/100130587427333595998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1445447037305581010.post-69397670313665878512015-08-05T06:07:00.001-07:002015-08-05T06:07:11.547-07:00Netflix Offering New Parents Up To 1-Year Of Paid Leave For Employees « CBS San Francisco<a href="http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/08/04/netflix-offering-new-parents-up-to-1-year-of-paid-leave-for-employees/#.VcIKfADhS5Q.blogger">Netflix Offering New Parents Up To 1-Year Of Paid Leave For Employees « CBS San Francisco</a>Stephen Guy Hardinhttps://plus.google.com/100130587427333595998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1445447037305581010.post-78303246759071114202015-08-05T06:05:00.001-07:002015-08-05T06:05:10.401-07:00Study: More Sex Could Make You Less Happy « CBS San Francisco<a href="http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/08/03/study-more-sex-could-make-you-less-happy/#.VcIKAnhKYnA.blogger">Study: More Sex Could Make You Less Happy « CBS San Francisco</a>Stephen Guy Hardinhttps://plus.google.com/100130587427333595998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1445447037305581010.post-84891883448345429672015-07-02T04:30:00.001-07:002015-07-02T04:30:11.910-07:00Trump: 'NBC and Macy's Support Illegal Immigration' | MRCTV<a href="http://www.mrctv.org/blog/trump-nbc-macys-support-illegal-immigration">Trump: 'NBC and Macy's Support Illegal Immigration' | MRCTV</a>Stephen Guy Hardinhttps://plus.google.com/100130587427333595998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1445447037305581010.post-24694831078524857352015-06-24T04:22:00.001-07:002015-06-24T04:22:32.750-07:00Cal State Christian groups to allow non-believers to hold leadership posts - Washington Times<a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jun/23/college-christian-groups-to-allow-non-believers-ho/#.VYqS9la5sFY.blogger">Cal State Christian groups to allow non-believers to hold leadership posts - Washington Times</a>Stephen Guy Hardinhttps://plus.google.com/100130587427333595998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1445447037305581010.post-91091509785281457412015-06-23T11:44:00.001-07:002015-06-23T11:44:24.494-07:00Obama amnesty reaches illegals in prisons, jails - Washington Times<a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jun/23/obama-amnesty-reaches-illegals-prisons-jails/#.VYmpBe2e5Xw.blogger">Obama amnesty reaches illegals in prisons, jails - Washington Times</a>Stephen Guy Hardinhttps://plus.google.com/100130587427333595998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1445447037305581010.post-64849052526895001062015-06-23T05:33:00.001-07:002015-06-23T05:33:28.876-07:00Piers Morgan Wants to Jail White People Who Use the N-Word | MRCTV<a href="http://www.mrctv.org/blog/piers-morgan-wants-jail-white-people-who-use-n-word">Piers Morgan Wants to Jail White People Who Use the N-Word | MRCTV</a>Stephen Guy Hardinhttps://plus.google.com/100130587427333595998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1445447037305581010.post-2642033042854146722015-06-23T04:35:00.001-07:002015-06-23T04:35:33.056-07:00TAMMY BRUCE: Faith prevails over Charleston church massacre - Washington Times<a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jun/22/tammy-bruce-faith-prevails-over-charleston-church-/#.VYlEgxBVvCU.blogger">TAMMY BRUCE: Faith prevails over Charleston church massacre - Washington Times</a>Stephen Guy Hardinhttps://plus.google.com/100130587427333595998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1445447037305581010.post-42641575169829001942015-06-23T04:34:00.001-07:002015-06-23T04:34:56.282-07:00California Gov. Brown signs 'yes means yes' rape shield law - Washington Times<a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/sep/29/california-gov-brown-signs-yes-means-yes-rape-shie/#.VYlEXe3K5Xs.blogger">California Gov. Brown signs 'yes means yes' rape shield law - Washington Times</a>Stephen Guy Hardinhttps://plus.google.com/100130587427333595998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1445447037305581010.post-15916705023440054112015-06-22T11:39:00.002-07:002015-06-22T11:39:52.843-07:00<h1 style="background-color: #fbfbfb; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: founders-grotesk-x-cn-nypost, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 60px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 50px; margin: 0px; padding: 15px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><a class="postid-9730374" href="http://nypost.com/2015/06/22/cuomo-losing-support-with-new-progressive-politics/" style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Cuomo losing support with new progressive&nbsp;politics</a></h1><div id="author-byline" style="background-color: #fbfbfb; border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; float: left; font-family: pt-serif, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="byline" style="border: 0px; color: #2f2f2f; float: left; font-family: futura-pt, Futura, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">By&nbsp;<a class="fredric-u-dicker" href="http://nypost.com/author/fredric-u-dicker/" style="border: 0px; color: #345cc6; display: inline-block; font-stretch: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Fredric U. Dicker</a></div></div><div class="byline-date" style="background-color: #fbfbfb; border: 0px; color: #2e2e2f; float: right; font-family: futura-pt, Futura, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 1px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">June 22, 2015 | 1:16am</div><div class="double-rule" style="background-color: #fbfbfb; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-bottom-style: double; border-width: 0px 0px 4px; clear: both; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: pt-serif, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; height: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div id="featured-image-wrapper" style="background-color: #fbfbfb; border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: pt-serif, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="modal-trigger" data-modal-type="image" href="https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/usa-wage_newyork.jpg" style="background-image: url(https://s1.wp.com/wp-content/themes/vip/nypost/static/images/sprites/nypost-mobile-s513b81d24d.png); background-position: 0px -1687px; background-repeat: no-repeat; border: 0px; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 32px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9999px; top: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 32px; z-index: 1;" title="Expand Image">Modal Trigger</a><div class="featured-image" data-alt="Cuomo losing support with new progressive politics" data-picture="" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><div data-src="https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/usa-wage_newyork.jpg?w=600" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div data-media="(min-width: 640px)" data-src="https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/usa-wage_newyork.jpg?w=720&amp;h=480&amp;crop=1" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><img alt="Cuomo losing support with new progressive politics" src="https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/usa-wage_newyork.jpg?w=720&amp;h=480&amp;crop=1" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /></div><div class="wp-caption-text featured" style="border-top-color: rgb(204, 51, 51); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 4px 0px 0px; font-family: founders-grotesk-web-nypost, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; position: relative; top: -3px; vertical-align: baseline;">Andrew Cuomo<span class="credit" style="border: 0px; color: #9d9d9d; display: block; font-family: helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 14px; margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Photo: Reuters</span></div></div><div class="in-line-column wp-caption alignleft" style="background-color: #fbfbfb; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #2a2a2a; display: inline-block; float: left; font-family: pt-serif, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px 20px 0px -30px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 230px; z-index: 1;"><div class="box module inline columnist desktop" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(50, 50, 50, 0.498039) 0px 0px 5px; background-color: white; background-image: url(https://s1.wp.com/wp-content/themes/vip/nypost/static/images/header-articles-bg.png); border: 0px; box-shadow: none; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 55px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="columnist-info" style="background: rgb(251, 251, 251); border-top-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 8px 0px 0px; float: right; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: -55px 0px 0px; padding: 5px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 230px; z-index: 2;"><h3 style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; float: left; font-family: futura-pt, Futura, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; height: 12px; line-height: 12px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 100px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">MORE FROM</h3><h6 style="border: 0px; color: #cc3333; float: left; font-family: founders-grotesk-x-cn-nypost, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 100px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://nypost.com/author/fredric-u-dicker/" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">FREDRIC U. DICKER</a></h6></div><div class="columnist-image" data-alt="Fredric U. Dicker" data-picture="" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div data-src="https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/fredric-u-dicker.png?w=55&amp;h=50&amp;crop=1" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div data-media="(min-width: 640px)" data-src="https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/fredric-u-dicker.png?w=76&amp;h=69&amp;crop=1" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><img alt="Fredric U. Dicker" src="https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/fredric-u-dicker.png?w=76&amp;h=69&amp;crop=1" style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 2;" /></div><div class="module-wrapper" style="border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 20px 20px; padding: 20px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><h5 style="border: 0px; font-family: founders-grotesk-x-cn-nypost, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></h5><div class="rule" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; clear: both; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><h5 style="border: 0px; font-family: founders-grotesk-x-cn-nypost, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></h5></div></div></div><div class="entry-content" style="background-color: #fbfbfb; border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: pt-serif, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="border: 0px; color: #2e2e2f; font-stretch: normal; padding: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">Gov. Cuomo has lost the support of many wealthy contributors as a result of his accelerating embrace of leftist “progressive” politics and US Attorney Preet Bharara’s ongoing Albany corruption probe, The Post has learned.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #2e2e2f; font-stretch: normal; padding: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">Cuomo — dropping in the polls, at odds with many of his fellow Democrats and no longer able to bend the state Legislature to his will — is finding it “increasingly hard, much more difficult, to raise money,” one of Cuomo’s biggest fund-raisers told The Post.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #2e2e2f; font-stretch: normal; padding: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">“A lot of people who were big contributors are worried by his policies,” the well-known fund-raiser continued. “He’s not been doing anything for them, he doesn’t seem to care about their interests anymore, and, as a result, it’s hard to raise money for him.”</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #2e2e2f; font-stretch: normal; padding: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">Bharara’s corruption probe, which led to the indictment of two legislative leaders this year, has also “seriously impacted” the governor’s fund-raising ability by making potential contributors with issues before Cuomo’s office wary that they could be accused of seeking a quid pro quo, the fund-raiser said.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #2e2e2f; font-stretch: normal; padding: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">Solicitors working for Cuomo’s campaign committee, responding to the Bharara probe, have also apparently put the brakes on what had once been “a frantic, high-pressure” effort to raise funds for the governor.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #2e2e2f; font-stretch: normal; padding: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">“It used to be horrible, the Cuomo people were always pushing, pushing, pushing for money, more money, like crazy men,” said the fund-raiser. “But now they’ve backed off and I think that has a lot to do with Bharara’s investigation.”</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #2e2e2f; font-stretch: normal; padding: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">Cuomo, under intense pressure from Democratic “progressives” like Mayor de Blasio, has moved sharply to the left on a number of issues including a minimum-wage hike, expanded union and women’s rights, gun control, and the environment.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #2e2e2f; font-stretch: normal; padding: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">Cuomo hasn’t in the past had any difficulty raising huge amounts of campaign cash: He took in over $45 million for his reelection last year and entered 2015 with nearly $9 million still in the bank.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #2e2e2f; font-stretch: normal; padding: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">Last week Cuomo skipped his own $2,500-a-person fund-raiser at the Plaza Hotel because of the stalled legislative session, but it went ahead without him.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #2e2e2f; font-stretch: normal; padding: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">How much money Cuomo has raised this year won’t be known until July 15 when he must file an updated report with the state Board of Elections.</div><hr /><div style="border: 0px; color: #2e2e2f; font-stretch: normal; padding: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">Cuomo, who has dabbled with several foreign-policy issues during recent trips to Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Israel, may be about to get much more deeply involved.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #2e2e2f; font-stretch: normal; padding: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">A source with strong ties to Israeli leaders told The Post that Cuomo is preparing to split with President Obama if Obama reaches a nuclear-weapons deal with Iran at the end of the month.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #2e2e2f; font-stretch: normal; padding: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Cuomo has informed some top Jewish leaders that he’s going to oppose Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, if there is one,” the source said.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #2e2e2f; font-stretch: normal; padding: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">A break by Cuomo with Obama over Iran could boost the governor’s standing with traditionally Democratic Jewish voters who, recent Siena College polls show, are increasingly opposed to Obama’s policies.</div></div>Stephen Guy Hardinhttps://plus.google.com/100130587427333595998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1445447037305581010.post-25817747339571755782015-06-22T11:30:00.001-07:002015-06-22T11:30:23.925-07:00White House brushes off revelations about Jon Gruber's role in crafting Obamacare - Washington Times<a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jun/22/white-house-brushes-revelations-about-jon-grubers-/#.VYhUPcyrK5o.blogger">White House brushes off revelations about Jon Gruber's role in crafting Obamacare - Washington Times</a>Stephen Guy Hardinhttps://plus.google.com/100130587427333595998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1445447037305581010.post-35492007995953169162015-06-22T11:28:00.001-07:002015-06-22T11:28:51.046-07:00Bernie Sanders gets bad news: Poll shows Americans leery of socialists for president - Washington Times<a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jun/22/americans-leery-socialist-president-poll/#.VYhT3V7wHAw.blogger">Bernie Sanders gets bad news: Poll shows Americans leery of socialists for president - Washington Times</a>Stephen Guy Hardinhttps://plus.google.com/100130587427333595998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1445447037305581010.post-1264037381575298172013-09-11T06:19:00.001-07:002013-09-11T06:19:46.651-07:00Colorado lawmakers recalled over guns - Katie Glueck - POLITICO.com<a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/colorado-recall-guns-referendum-96566.html#.UjBt5dI6s3Q.blogger">Colorado lawmakers recalled over guns - Katie Glueck - POLITICO.com</a>Stephen Guy Hardinhttps://plus.google.com/100130587427333595998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1445447037305581010.post-51564957429741611312013-06-27T05:07:00.001-07:002013-06-27T05:07:06.032-07:00Trayvon Martin family lawyer Benjamin Crump accused of lying to court<a href="http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/conscience-realist/2013/jun/27/trayvon-martin-family-lawyer-benjamin-crump-accuse/#.Ucwq2NR2CCQ.blogger">Trayvon Martin family lawyer Benjamin Crump accused of lying to court</a>Stephen Guy Hardinhttps://plus.google.com/100130587427333595998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1445447037305581010.post-58401236131777327322013-05-29T05:25:00.002-07:002013-05-29T05:25:52.176-07:00<h1 class="articleHeadline" itemprop="headline"><nyt_headline type=" " version="1.0"><em>Anti-West Hard-Liner Gains in Iranian Race</em></nyt_headline></h1><div class="articleSpanImage"><span itemid="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/05/29/world/JP-IRAN/JP-IRAN-articleLarge.jpg" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject"><img alt="" border="0" height="368" itemid="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/05/29/world/JP-IRAN/JP-IRAN-articleLarge.jpg" itemprop="url" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/05/29/world/JP-IRAN/JP-IRAN-articleLarge.jpg" width="600" /><div class="credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder">Newsha Tavakolian for The New York Times</div><div class="caption" itemprop="description">Saeed Jalili, waving at a rally in Tehran on Friday, is one of eight candidates in the June election. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2013/05/28/world/middleeast/20130529-IRAN.html">»</a></div></span></div><nyt_byline><h6 class="byline">By <span itemid="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/e/thomas_erdbrink/index.html" itemprop="author creator" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/e/thomas_erdbrink/index.html" rel="author" title="More Articles by THOMAS ERDBRINK"><span itemprop="name">THOMAS ERDBRINK</span></a></span></h6></nyt_byline><h6 class="dateline">Published: May 28, 2013&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </h6><div class="shareTools shareToolsThemeClassic articleShareToolsTop shareToolsInstance" data-description="Saeed Jalili, a protégé of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s, is the establishment’s favorite in the presidential election, an unsettling prospect for relations with the West." data-shares="facebook,twitter,google,save,email,showall|Share,print,singlepage,reprints,ad" data-title="Anti-West Hard-Liner Gains in Iranian Race" data-url="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/29/world/middleeast/saeed-jalili-emerges-as-establishment-favorite-in-irans-presidential-race.html"><div class="shareToolsItem shareToolsItemAd Frame4A lastItem" data-share="ad" id="Frame4A"><!-- ADXINFO classification="Business_SF_Markets_Module_Tile" campaign="FSL2013_ArticleTools_120x60_1849317b_nyt5" priority="8000" width="120" height="60" --><br /></div></div><div class="articleBody"><span itemid="http://www.nytimes.com" itemprop="copyrightHolder provider sourceOrganization" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Organization"></span><nyt_text><nyt_correction_top></nyt_correction_top><div itemprop="articleBody">TEHRAN — At his first presidential campaign rally, Saeed Jalili on Friday welcomed the cheers of thousands of young men as he hauled himself onto the stage. His movements were hampered by a prosthetic leg, a badge of honor from his days as a young Revolutionary Guards member in Iran’s great trench war with Iraq. </div></nyt_text></div><div class="articleInline runaroundLeft"><!--forceinline--><div class="columnGroup doubleRule">&nbsp;</div></div><div class="articleBody"><div itemprop="articleBody">“Welcome, living martyr, Jalili,” the audience shouted in unison, most of them too young to have witnessed the bloody conflict themselves but deeply immersed in the national veneration of its veterans. Waving flags belonging to “the resistance” — the military cooperation among Iran, Syria, the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah and some Palestinian groups — the crowd roared the candidate’s election slogan: “No compromise. No submission. Only Jalili.” </div><div itemprop="articleBody">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </div><div itemprop="articleBody">Mr. Jalili, known as Iran’s unyielding nuclear negotiator and a protégé of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is emerging as the presumed front-runner in Iran’s presidential election on June 14, an unsettling prospect for future relations with the West. Mr. Jalili, 47, who many analysts say has long been groomed for a top position in Iran, is by far the most outspoken hard-liner among the eight candidates approved to participate in the election. </div><div itemprop="articleBody">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </div><div itemprop="articleBody">Opposing “détente a hundred percent” and promising no compromise “whatsoever” with the West over matters like Iran’s nuclear program and involvement in Syria, Mr. Jalili seems set to further escalate Iran’s standoff with the United States and its allies if elected president. </div><div itemprop="articleBody">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </div><div itemprop="articleBody">“He seems to be Ahmadinejad Phase 2,” said Rasool Nafisi, an Iran expert based in Virginia, referring to Iran’s current president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. “He would probably not be a partner to negotiate for the nuclear issues, as we have seen before when he was heading the delegations.” </div><div itemprop="articleBody">An analyst based in Iran, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, said Mr. Jalili was “the perfect follower of Khamenei.” </div><div itemprop="articleBody">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </div><div itemprop="articleBody">“If he gets elected I foresee even more isolation and conflict, as he doesn’t care about foreign relations, the economy or anything,” the analyst said. </div><div itemprop="articleBody">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </div><div itemprop="articleBody">In recent weeks, Mr. Jalili has garnered the open support of Iran’s governing establishment, a coalition of conservative clerics and Revolutionary Guards commanders known as the traditionalists. High-ranking Shiite Muslim clerics have begun speaking out in his favor, and a nationwide network of paramilitary volunteers, the basij, is now helping to organize his election campaign. </div><div itemprop="articleBody">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </div><div itemprop="articleBody">He has been featured in flattering terms in recent weeks in the semiofficial Fars news agency, which is connected to the Revolutionary Guards, as well as in dozens of Web sites and other news outlets. By contrast, the other candidates now sometimes discover their campaign appearances canceled for unclear reasons and often find themselves under sharp attack in interviews on state TV, while Mr. Jalili gets softball questions. </div><div itemprop="articleBody">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </div><div itemprop="articleBody">“He’ll easily get 30 percent of the vote,” said Amir Mohebbian, an analyst close to Iran’s leaders, pointing to the well-organized groups supporting Mr. Jalili. “The remainder will be divided between the other candidates.” </div><div itemprop="articleBody">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </div><div itemprop="articleBody">That would lead to a runoff election that Mr. Jalili would be heavily favored to win, since under Iranian law the president must receive at least half of the vote. </div><div itemprop="articleBody">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </div><div itemprop="articleBody">Iran’s presidential elections, lacking independent opinion polls and subject to manipulation, are notoriously unpredictable. In 2005, Mr. Ahmadinejad came out of nowhere to win. In 2009, millions of people took to the streets to protest what they said was widespread fraud in the voting that returned Mr. Ahmadinejad to office over the more popular opposition candidate, Mir Hussein Moussavi. </div><div itemprop="articleBody">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </div><div itemprop="articleBody">But the major threats to Mr. Jalili’s candidacy were apparently eliminated when the representatives of two influential political factions, one led by Mr. Ahmadinejad and the other by a former president, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, were disqualified from the election by the conservative-dominated Guardian Council. That decision underscored not just the determination of the traditionalists to consolidate power, but their ability to ensure the result. </div><div itemprop="articleBody">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </div><div itemprop="articleBody">In a recent opinion article, Mr. Mohebbian said that while Mr. Jalili’s relative inexperience in domestic politics might make him appear as an outsider, the support of Iran’s governing establishment made it likely that “the conditions of the day will create an atmosphere which will put Mr. Jalili in a leadership position.” </div><div itemprop="articleBody">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </div><div itemprop="articleBody">While Ayatollah Khamenei is officially neutral, Mr. Jalili’s speeches and viewpoints closely resemble the leader’s worldview of an Iran engaged in a multifaceted battle with the West. </div><div itemprop="articleBody">“The best president,” Mr. Khamenei said on Monday, speaking to students at a military academy, “is the one who powerfully resists the enemy and will turn the Islamic republic into an international example for the oppressed people of the world.” </div><div itemprop="articleBody">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </div><div itemprop="articleBody">Mr. Jalili, who sports a gray beard and prefers collarless shirts, headed Ayatollah Khamenei’s office for four years, starting in 2001, before emerging in recent years as the chief nuclear negotiator. But little is known about his views on other issues. </div><div itemprop="articleBody">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </div><div itemprop="articleBody">“Mr. Jalili is like a watermelon,” said Mohammad Khoshchehreh, an economist and professor at Tehran University. “He looks ripe on the outside, but we don’t know what color he is inside.” </div><div itemprop="articleBody">Partly because of Western sanctions, Iran’s economy is reeling from high inflation and a battered currency, but Mr. Jalili has addressed the problems only obliquely. During a televised interview on Sunday he said that Iran should cut its dependency on oil revenues and establish a “resistance economy in order to foil the conspiracies against Iran.” </div><div itemprop="articleBody">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </div><div itemprop="articleBody">Such talk has left economists baffled. “His theory of resistance economy doesn’t mean anything,” Mr. Khoshchehreh said. “If it is based on looking at our weak points, that can be good, but we have no idea if he has a deep knowledge. We are worried about him.” </div><div itemprop="articleBody">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </div><div itemprop="articleBody">On Friday, during the campaign event in Tehran, Mr. Jalili chose to explain his policies by citing the first imam of the Shiites, the martyr Ali. </div><div itemprop="articleBody">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </div><div itemprop="articleBody">“All across the region we can hear our battle cry, ‘Ya Ali,’ ” said Mr. Jalili, who wrote a dissertation on the Prophet Muhammad’s foreign policy. “We heard it in Lebanon with the victory of Hezbollah. We hear it in our resistance against the Zionist regime. Time and time again we have proved our strength through this slogan.” </div><div itemprop="articleBody">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </div><div itemprop="articleBody">As songs played memorializing the battles in the border town of Shalamcheh during the Iran-Iraq war, men punched their fists in the air and shouted, “The blood in our veins belongs to our leader.” </div><div itemprop="articleBody">The goal of Iran and its allies, Mr. Jalili said, is to “uproot capitalism, Zionism and Communism, and promote the discourse of pure Islam in the world.” </div><div itemprop="articleBody">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </div><div itemprop="articleBody">He did not directly mention the Western sanctions that were imposed over the country’s nuclear program — which Iran insists is for peaceful purposes but the West says is a cover for developing nuclear weapons — or the possibility that they will be tightened in response to Tehran’s intransigence. Nor did he speak about the potential for deeper involvement in the Syrian civil war, where Tehran’s proxy, Hezbollah, has recently intervened in support of the Syrian government. </div><div itemprop="articleBody">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </div><div itemprop="articleBody">If his supporters harbored worries over what these policies might mean for the Iranian economy, they kept them to themselves. “We are fighting an ideological war — nobody cares about the economy,” said Amir Qoroqchi, 25, a smiling electrical engineering student from the holy city of Qum. “The only thing that matters is resistance.” </div><div itemprop="articleBody">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </div><div itemprop="articleBody">For decades, Iran’s presidents have staked out an alternative power center, frequently in conflict with the supreme leader and the more conservative elements in the government. With the rise of Mr. Jalili and the apparent elimination of serious opposition candidates, those on the losing end of Iran’s political spectrum fear a developing imbalance. </div><div itemprop="articleBody">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </div><div itemprop="articleBody">The republican and authoritarian religious parts of the government “have been in conflict from Day 1,” Mr. Nafisi, the Iran expert, said. </div></div>Stephen Guy Hardinhttps://plus.google.com/100130587427333595998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1445447037305581010.post-78735998331741372012013-05-21T13:14:00.000-07:002013-05-21T13:14:17.979-07:00<div class="node" id="node-138206"><div class="entry_info clearfix" style="width: 100%;"><span class="entry_date left"><abbr>May 21, 2013 1:45 PM</abbr></span></div><h1 class="blog_title"><a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2013/05/ex-gillibrand-aide-signs-with-anthony-weiner" title="Ex-Gillibrand Aide Signs With Anthony Weiner"><em>Ex-Gillibrand Aide Signs With Anthony Weiner</em></a></h1><div class="entry_author">BY Celeste Katz</div><div class="content clear-block"><strong>Another campaign staffer has joined Team Weiner.</strong><br />Our Jonathan Lemire reports:<br /><br /><img alt="weiner ap photo.jpg" src="http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/sites/default/files/u56/weiner%20ap%20photo.jpg" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 5px; float: right; height: 250px; margin: 10px; width: 200px;" />Camille Joseph, a former aide to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and a veteran of President Obama’s campaigns, has been hired as political director of <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/taxonomy/term/55659">Anthony Weiner’s</a> still-to-be-announced mayoral bid.<br /><br />Joseph is the second major hire made by the former congressman in recent days. Last week, he brought aboard Danny Kedem, a veteran of several House races, as his new campaign manager.<br /><br />Weiner, who blew up his career in a 2011 sexting and coverup scandal, has yet to announce his run for City Hall, though rumors are swirling that it could happen any minute.<br /><br />Joseph was described by a former co-worker as “young and smart” who worked tirelessly during her three years on Gillibrand’s staff.<br /><br />She had several titles there, including director of intergovernmental affairs, director of public engagement and policy and special advisor.<br /><br />Joseph also worked on both Obama presidential campaigns, holding the title of National African-American Vote Deputy Director last year.<br /><br />Her hiring was first reported by <a href="http://www.capitalnewyork.com/">Capital New York</a>. An email to Weiner was not immediately returned.<br /><br />Neither Joseph nor Kedem have experience in a grueling five-borough mayoral campaign. Kedem did helm a successful mayoral campaign in New Haven, Conn. and worked on Democrat Mark Murphy's failed challenge to Staten Island Rep. Michael Grimm.<br /><br />Many former Weiner staffers have moved on or signed with other Democratic hopefuls</div></div>Stephen Guy Hardinhttps://plus.google.com/100130587427333595998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1445447037305581010.post-73315445437283598622013-05-21T13:09:00.001-07:002013-05-21T13:09:16.122-07:00<h1><em>Man kills himself at Notre Dame Cathedral</em></h1><!--endclickprintinclude--><!--startclickprintexclude--><!--no partner--><div class="cnn_stryathrtmp"><div class="cnnByline">By <strong>Stephanie Halasz </strong>and<strong> Jessica King</strong>, CNN</div><div class="cnn_strytmstmp">updated 2:38 PM EDT, Tue May 21, 2013</div></div><!--google_ad_section_end--><div class="cnn_strycntntlft"><!--startclickprintexclude--><div class="cnn_stryimg640captioned"><img alt="Policemen outside Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral, on May 21, 2013." border="0" height="360" src="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/130521165523-france-cathedral-suicide-story-top.jpg" width="640" /></div><div class="cnn_stryimg640caption"><div class="cnn_strycaptiontxt">Policemen outside Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral, on May 21, 2013.</div></div><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="em0"></a><div class="cnn_strylftcntnt"><div class="cnn_strylctcntr"><div><strong>STORY HIGHLIGHTS</strong></div><ul class="cnn_bulletbin cnnStryHghLght"><!--google_ad_section_start--><li>A man committed suicide in the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, police say</li><li>The site was evacuated</li><li>The man, identified as Dominique Venner, regularly lashed out against same-sex marriage and Islamists</li><li>Right-wing politician Marine Le Pen expressed respect for him</li><li></li><!--google_ad_section_end--></ul></div></div><!--endclickprintexclude--><!--google_ad_section_start--><!--startclickprintinclude--><strong>(CNN)</strong> -- A right-wing historian and author killed himself inside the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris Tuesday in front of horrified tourists, police said.<br /><br /><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph2">About 1,500 people at the cathedral were evacuated, CNN affiliate BFM reported. The site is one of the world's most prominent churches and a huge tourist attraction in the French capital.</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph3">BFM identified the man as Dominique Venner, 78.</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph3">&nbsp;</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph4">Le Monde newspaper quoted a rector at the cathedral, who said the man placed a letter on the altar and then shot himself</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph4">&nbsp;</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph5">On his blog, Venner has lashed out against same-sex marriage and what he called a future Islamist takeover of France.</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph5">&nbsp;</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph6">In a post published Tuesday, he wrote, "The essence of a man is in his existence and not in another world. It's here and now that you have to play out your destiny until the last second. And this last second has as much importance as the rest of the life."</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph6">&nbsp;</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph7">In the blog, Venner voiced his support for those expected to take part in a massive demonstration in Paris May 26 against same-sex marriage. But he said their fight should not be limited to that issue, and they must also denounce what he predicted would be the replacement of the French and European population with Muslims.</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph7">&nbsp;</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph8">"There certainly have to be new actions, spectacular and symbolic, to shake up the sleepiness, to shake the numbed consciences and wake up the memory of our origins," the blog said. "We're entering into a time when words must be authenticated by actions."</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph8">&nbsp;</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph9">Right-wing politician Marine Le Pen tweeted about her "respect" for him. His "last gesture, which was highly political, was to try to wake up the people of France," she wrote.</div><div class="cnn_storypgraphtxt cnn_storypgraph10">Some took to Twitter to slam Le Pen for the remark.</div></div>Stephen Guy Hardinhttps://plus.google.com/100130587427333595998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1445447037305581010.post-74659550227917253522013-05-20T05:24:00.000-07:002013-05-20T05:24:23.214-07:00<h1 property="dc.title"><span class="entry-title">North Koreans holding Chinese boat hostage</span></h1><div class="social-tools horizontal" style="position: relative; right: 630px;"><ul><li class="facebook"><div class="tool facebook">&nbsp;</div><span class="action hideText">Share to Face</span><span class="action hideText">Share on Twitter</span>By <span class="author"> William </span><abbr class="updated" title="2013-05-20T11:09:00-0400">y 20, 2013 11:09 AM EDT</abbr></li></ul></div><div class="module byline"><h3 class="hide"><span class="source-org vcard"><span class="org fn">The Washington Post</span></span></h3><h3 class="hide"><span class="source-org vcard"><span class="org fn"></span></span>&nbsp;</h3><h3 property="dc.creator"><!-- /For AP News Registry --><span class="timestamp updated processed" contenttype="article" datetitle="published" epochtime="1369048140000" pagetype="leaf">Monday, May 20, <span class="time special">7:09 </span></span></h3><h3 property="dc.creator"></h3></div><!-- /byline --><div class="relative" id="article"><div id="article_body"><div class="article_body entry-content"><article><span class="dateline"></span> BEIJING – Armed North Koreans are holding a Chinese fishing boat and its crew ransom despite the protestation of Chinese officials, the boat’s owner said Monday.<br /><br />The boat’s seizure – which occurred in early May, but was only revealed by Chinese officials Sunday night — is <a data-xslt="_http" href="http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-04-07/world/38354043_1_south-china-sea-schumer-united-nations">latest dust-up</a> between North Korea and China, which Pyongyang has long relied on to prop up its economy and defend it international censure efforts by the United States and others. </article></div><div class="module article-side-rail left clearfix padding-right margin-top-7 margin-right-15" id="article-side-rail"><div class="article-video border-top padding-top padding-bottom margin-bottom flipboard-remove"><div class="package oxfordline"><div class="module s1 img-border "><div class="clear">&nbsp;</div></div><!--/s1--></div></div><!--INLINE_BB AD BEGIN--><div class="left margin-right margin-bottom padding-top slug" id="slug_inline_bb" style="display: block;"><div id="wpni_adi_inline_bb">&nbsp;</div></div><!--INLINE_BB AD END--></div><!--/article-side-rail--><div class="article_body entry-content"><article>The vessel’s owner, Yu Xuejun, was not on board when the boat was seized. He has posted increasingly desperate message about the situation on his microblog in the past two days. In the latest post Monday morning, Yu described a call he received from North Koreans, who demanded ransom and then handed the phone to his boat’s captain.<br /><br />“His voice was trembling. I could feel he was very afraid,” Yu wrote about his captain. “I suspected that my crew has been mistreated. I can’t imagine what North Korea side could do.”<br /><br />Chinese officials at the embassy in Pyongyang have asked North Korea to release the vessel and crew and ensure their safety, China said in a statement posted late Sunday on the foreign ministry’s official microblog. The statement was the first public acknowledgment by China that the boat had been taken.<br />Beijing has shown increasing signs of frustration with North Korea in recent months, ever since the renegade country <a data-xslt="_http" href="http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-02-12/world/37046353_1_nuclear-test-kim-jong-eun-zhu-feng">ignored China’s pleas</a> not to carry out a recent nuclear test.<br /><br />Sensing an opening amid Chinese frustrations, the Obama administration is trying to push Beijing to take a much stronger stance against North Korea than it has in the past.<br /><br />Chinese officials, who value stability above all else, are unlikely to abandon North Korea anytime soon. But state-run newspapers in China have increasingly published stories questioning the upside of China’s ties with Pyongyang. And earlier this month, the state-run Bank of China <a data-xslt="_http" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22592750">suspended transactions with the North Korea Foreign Trade Bank</a>, in what appeared to be a calculated expression of China’s unhappiness.<br /><br />Seizures of Chinese fishing boats have been a problem in the past. In May of last year, North Koreans seized three Chinese boats and held 29 crew members hostage for two weeks. Upon their release, crew members described being beaten and starved, with some stripped of everything including their clothing.<br />An article in th<br />e Southern Metropolis Daily, one of China’s most respected newspapers, quoted unnamed police officials who said North Koreans had sized at least three other Chinese vessels so far this year, demanding almost $50,000 ransom in one case. It is unclear whether the seizures may be an indication of financial desperation among some North Koreans.<br /><br />Yu, the boat owner, did not respond to attempts on Monday to reach him. But in online posts, he said the North Koreans have demanded almost $100,000 in order for his boat and crew to be released. In a post on Saturday, Yu described the North Koreans boarding the boat armed with guns, and said the ones he talked to by phone were “rude and unreasonable.”<br /><br />China’s government-run Xinhua news agency said Chinese officials had demanded North Korea release the boat as long ago as May 10, when Yu first contacted them for help.<br />Li Qi in Beijing contributed to this report</article></div></div></div>Stephen Guy Hardinhttps://plus.google.com/100130587427333595998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1445447037305581010.post-59074192068667964712013-05-13T04:53:00.001-07:002013-05-13T04:53:21.660-07:00<br /><div class="master-row topSection" data-timer-key="1" data-zone="topSection"><div class="fullstory fullstoryHeader" data-comp-index="3" data-comp-name="fullstory" data-comp-view="fullstory_title" data-timer-key="5"><div class="lastUpdated" id="publicationDate"><span class="time">May 13, 2013 10:57 am</span></div><h1><em>China banks rein in support for North Korea</em></h1><div class="byline "><span>By Simon Rabinovitch in Dandong, China</span></div><div class="byline "><span></span>&nbsp;</div></div></div><div class="master-column middleSection " data-timer-key="6" data-zone="middleSection"><div class="master-row contentSection " data-timer-key="7" data-zone="contentSection"><div class="master-row editorialSection" data-timer-key="8" data-zone="editorialSection"><div class="fullstory fullstoryBody" data-comp-index="0" data-comp-name="fullstory" data-comp-view="fullstory" data-timer-key="9"><div id="storyContent">Top Chinese banks have halted most dealings with <a href="http://www.ft.com/world/asia-pacific/north-korea" title="North Korea news headlines - FT.com">North Korea</a>, an unprecedented move to use financial leverage against Pyongyang that reflects Beijing’s exasperation with Kim Jong-eun’s regime.<br /><br />The Chinese financial blockade against North Korea goes beyond what Beijing had agreed to implement in UN resolutions, with several leading banks saying they have stopped all cross-border cash transfers, regardless of the nature of the business. A UN resolution this year only called for sanctions in cases where money might contribute to North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.<br /><div class="insideArticleShare">&nbsp;</div>Nevertheless, the blockade is far from watertight. A smaller bank based in northeastern <a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/world/asia-pacific/china" title="China news headlines - FT.com">China</a> across the border from North Korea said it was still handling large-scale cross-border transfers, an indication that Beijing is not willing to entirely cut off North Korea.<br /><br />China is overwhelmingly North Korea’s most important economic partner. Trade between the two countries has grown rapidly in recent years, providing a vital cash lifeline to the isolated, impoverished state.<br /><br />But diplomatic relations between the two neighbours have suffered over the past year. Mr Kim has yet to visit China since taking power at the end of 2011 and has rebuffed Chinese entreaties to refrain from nuclear bomb and missile tests.<br /><br />Concerned about the consequences for regional security and also angered by Mr Kim’s disregard for China, Beijing has started to use the financial sanctions to ratchet up the pressure on North Korea.<br /><a class="wsodCompany" data-hover-chart="hk:1398" href="http://markets.ft.com/tearsheets/performance.asp?s=hk:1398">Industrial and Commercial Bank of China</a>, <a class="wsodCompany" data-hover-chart="hk:939" href="http://markets.ft.com/tearsheets/performance.asp?s=hk:939">China Construction Bank </a>and <a class="wsodCompany" data-hover-chart="hk:1288" href="http://markets.ft.com/tearsheets/performance.asp?s=hk:1288">Agricultural Bank of China</a> – China’s three biggest banks – said they had suspended all financial dealings with North Korea.<br />“CCB strictly adheres to all decisions taken by Chinese regulators and the UN Security Council,” CCB said. “At present, CCB has no business contact whatsoever with North Korean banks and all representative accounts [of North Korean] banks are closed.”<br /><br />Bank of China, the country’s primary institution for foreign exchange transactions, said last week that it had <a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/a7154272-b702-11e2-a249-00144feabdc0.html" title="China reduces banking lifeline to N Korea - FT.com">closed the account of Foreign Trade Bank</a>, North Korea’s main foreign exchange bank. However, asked whether it had also frozen other financial dealings with North Korea, Bank of China declined to comment.<br /><br />Cai Jian, an expert on North Korea at Shanghai’s Fudan University, said it appeared to be the first time that Chinese banks had taken such co-ordinated action against Pyongyang.<br /><br />“Previously even when China signed on to sanctions against North Korea, there<br />&nbsp; was still a lot of economic activity between our two countries,” he said. “This time, I think, China’s banks received orders from the government to cut ties.”<br /><br />Among China’s smaller banks, the picture is more mixed. A manager at the Bank of Dalian branch in Dandong on the border with North Korea said transfers to the country were still possible. “As long as the company is doing normal trade, not sensitive goods like arms, we can process the transfer,” he said.</div></div></div></div></div>Stephen Guy Hardinhttps://plus.google.com/100130587427333595998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1445447037305581010.post-59590560903216671792013-05-09T11:07:00.002-07:002013-05-09T11:07:48.044-07:00<h1 class="entry-title" id="article-title"><em>California governor signs bill to speed up gun seizures</em></h1><div class="article-info"><div class="published updated dtstamp">Published May 02, 2013<span class="value-title" title="2013-05-01T23:27:40.000-0400"></span></div><div class="source-org vcard"><span class="org fn">Associated Press</span></div></div><div id="introduction" style="display: block;"><div class="entry-content"><div class="slideshow-block"><div class="slideshow"><ul class="encapsulate"><li class="dv-item article-ct dv-item-first dv-item-last"><div class="m"><img alt="jbrown12z.jpg" src="http://global.fncstatic.com/static/managed/img/jbrown12z.jpg" style="height: 371px; opacity: 1; width: 660px;" /></div><div class="summary caption" style="bottom: -1.84px; display: block;">June 30, 2011: California Gov. Jerry Brown signs the state budget.<span class="source"> (AP) </span></div></li></ul></div></div><article class="article-text"><span class="dateline">SACRAMENTO, Calif. – </span>Gov. Jerry Brown announced Wednesday that he has signed legislation expanding the ability of state agents to seize firearms from nearly 20,000 Californians who are not allowed to have them.<br /><br />They collectively own more than 39,000 handguns and 1,670 assault weapons but are prohibited from owning firearms because they have been convicted of crimes, ruled mentally unstable or are subject to domestic violence restraining orders.<br /><br />The bill authorizes $24 million for the state Department of Justice's Armed and Prohibited Persons program. The money will go to hire more agents to confiscate the weapons and reduce the backlog over the next three years.<br /><br />The program, which is unique to California, cross-checks five databases to find people who bought weapons they are no longer legally allowed to own.<br /><br />SB140 by Senator Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, authorizes $24 million to hire more agents to confiscate the weapons and reduce the backlog over the next three years.<br /><br />The bill is the first of numerous firearms bills introduced by lawmakers in response to recent mass shootings in Connecticut and Colorado. The Democratic governor signed the bill without comment.<br />"California is leading the nation in a common-sense effort to protect public safety," Attorney General Kamala Harris, who oversees the state Department of Justice, said in a statement.<br /><br />U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, a Democrat from St. Helena, introduced HR848 earlier this year to create a U.S. Department of Justice grant program for states that want to develop similar programs.</article></div></div><br /><br />Read more: <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/02/california-governor-signs-bill-to-speed-up-gun-seizures/?intcmp=obinsite#ixzz2SouMAK5B" style="color: #003399;">http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/02/california-governor-signs-bill-to-speed-up-gun-seizures/?intcmp=obinsite#ixzz2SouMAK5B</a>Stephen Guy Hardinhttps://plus.google.com/100130587427333595998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1445447037305581010.post-76321759766470118812013-05-09T11:04:00.003-07:002013-05-09T11:04:48.503-07:00<h2><em>Boston police chief says feds never shared warnings about bomber</em></h2><div id="section-content"><div class="g-28"><div class="component"><div><div class="hnews hentry item" id="article-section"><div class="article-info"><div class="published updated dtstamp">Published May 09, 2013<span class="value-title" title="2013-05-09T11:13:27.000-0400"></span></div><div class="source-org vcard"><span class="org fn">FoxNews.com</span></div></div><div id="introduction" style="display: block;"><div class="entry-content"><div class="m m-controller">&nbsp;</div><article class="article-text">Boston and Massachusetts law enforcement officials confirmed Thursday that federal agents left them in the dark on the growing warning signs about Tamerlan Tsarnaev in the run-up to the Boston Marathon bombing. <br /><br />Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis, in testimony on Capitol Hill, said his officers on a joint terrorism task force were never told about an explicit warning from the Russian government or about Tsarnaev's travel to the Chechnya region last year. Davis said he would have liked to have known about that activity, and that it "absolutely" would have merited a second look at Tsarnaev. <br />Davis and Massachusetts homeland security official Kurt Schwartz testified that their officers were not looped in on Tsarnaev until after the bombing. <br /><br />"At no time prior to the bombings did any member of the Massachusetts State Police or the fusion center have any information or knowledge about the Tsarnaev brothers," Schwartz said. <br />Current and former lawmakers at the committee hearing Thursday expressed disbelief at the lack of information-sharing. <br /><br />"The idea that the feds have this information and it's not shared with the state and locals defies why we create the Department of Homeland Security in the first place," said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. <br /><br />Former Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a witness at Thursday's hearing, called the failure to tell Boston police about the brothers "a serious and aggravating omission." <br /><br /><br />"This may be one of the most significant and painful takeaway lessons," he said. <br /><br />Officials continue to question what warning signs were missed about the Tsarnaev brothers. Attention has been drawn to a 2011 warning from the Russian government to the FBI about Tamerlan Tsarnaev. The FBI has revealed it was told Tsarnaev was a "follower of radical Islam" and was preparing to travel overseas. The FBI says it interviewed Tsarnaev and found no evidence of terrorist involvement.<br /><br />Tsarnaev ended up traveling to Russia for six months in early 2012. <br /><br />Even in the federal government, information may not have traveled across all relevant agencies. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has said the government's internal system "pinged" when Tsarnaev left the country in 2012, though a Republican senator has said the FBI claimed they were not aware of that trip. <br /><br />Davis said Thursday his department was not told of any of those developments, and repeatedly said he would have liked to know. <br /><br />"We were not aware of Tamerlan's activities," he said. Davis said he can't say he would have reached a different conclusion than the FBI, but the developments would have prompted another look.</article></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br /><br />Read more: <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/09/boston-police-chief-says-feds-never-shared-warnings-about-bomber/#ixzz2SotTP7dj" style="color: #003399;">http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/09/boston-police-chief-says-feds-never-shared-warnings-about-bomber/#ixzz2SotTP7dj</a>Stephen Guy Hardinhttps://plus.google.com/100130587427333595998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1445447037305581010.post-86945461785829659762013-05-07T05:25:00.001-07:002013-05-07T05:25:18.600-07:00<strong><em>Former Atlanta Braves Center Fielder Otis Nixon Arrested in Cherokee</em></strong><br /><strong><em></em></strong><br /><strong><em></em></strong><br /><div class="subhead">Nixon, 54, has been charged with felony possession of cocaine after he was arrested along I-575 near the Airport Road interchange.</div><div class="column"><div class="column"><ul class="byline NS_2ft3852c7u"><li>By<span class="vcard"><a class="author fn" href="http://woodstock.patch.com/users/kristal-dixon">Kristal Dixon</a></span></li></ul></div><ul class="byline NS_2ft3852c7u"><li><span class="date">May 6, 2013</span></li></ul></div><div class="spacer">&nbsp;</div><div class="standard_template template NS_1s79r3nhqa" id="article_template"><div class="asset_container"><div class="span-12"></div><div class="asset_block collapsed patch-reset NS_2o46t4a4c7"><div class="collapsed current_asset" data-asset="{&quot;id&quot;:14238710,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;asset_subclass&quot;:&quot;photo&quot;,&quot;asset_type&quot;:&quot;photo&quot;,&quot;thumbnailed&quot;:true,&quot;canonical_type&quot;:&quot;photo&quot;,&quot;urls&quot;:{&quot;thumbnail&quot;:&quot;http://o4.aolcdn.com/dims-shared/dims3/PATCH/thumbnail/88x110/crop/88x88+0+11/http://hss-prod.hss.aol.com/hss/storage/patch/5da768f63c1e5e954e6eef2042461a2&quot;,&quot;collapsed&quot;:&quot;http://o4.aolcdn.com/dims-shared/dims3/PATCH/resize/273x203/http://hss-prod.hss.aol.com/hss/storage/patch/5da768f63c1e5e954e6eef2042461a2&quot;,&quot;expanded&quot;:&quot;http://o4.aolcdn.com/dims-shared/dims3/PATCH/resize/600x450/http://hss-prod.hss.aol.com/hss/storage/patch/5da768f63c1e5e954e6eef2042461a2&quot;},&quot;crop_x&quot;:null,&quot;crop_y&quot;:null,&quot;crop_w&quot;:null,&quot;crop_h&quot;:null,&quot;expanded_photo_dimensions&quot;:&quot;360x450&quot;,&quot;crop_dimensions&quot;:&quot;360,360,0,45&quot;,&quot;scale_when&quot;:1.0,&quot;orig&quot;:&quot;88,88&quot;,&quot;dimensions&quot;:&quot;360x450&quot;}"><div class="current_asset_image photo"><div class="centering_div"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="photo_14238710"> <img alt="" src="http://o4.aolcdn.com/dims-shared/dims3/PATCH/resize/273x203/http://hss-prod.hss.aol.com/hss/storage/patch/5da768f63c1e5e954e6eef2042461a2" /><span class="new_tag">new</span> </a><img alt="Video_thumb" class="video_featured_overlay" src="http://assets2.patch-assets.com/images/video_thumbnail_overlays/video_thumb.png?1367624888" /></div></div><div class="share_tools"><span class="soc-twitter"><a href="http://twitter.com/?status=Former Atlanta Braves center fielder Otis Nixon remains at the Cherokee County Adult Detention Center with a $11,880 bond.%20http://patch.com/A-4jRX" target="social_bookmarks"><span class="icon_tiny icon-twitter">&nbsp;</span></a></span><span class="soc-email"><a class="link_to_email_fco_modal_dialog false" data-object="{&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Former Atlanta Braves Center Fielder Otis Nixon Arrested in Cherokee&quot;,&quot;short_url&quot;:&quot;http://patch.com/A-4jRX&quot;,&quot;url&quot;:&quot;/articles/former-atlanta-braves-center-fielder-otis-nixon-arrested-in-cherokee&quot;,&quot;permalink&quot;:&quot;former-atlanta-braves-center-fielder-otis-nixon-arrested-in-cherokee&quot;}" href="javascript:void(0);"><span class="icon_small icon-email"> </span></a></span></div><div class="title"></div><div class="caption">Former Atlanta Braves center fielder Otis Nixon remains at the Cherokee County Adult Detention Center with a $11,880 bond.<span class="credit"><span style="color: #444444;">Cherokee Sheriff's Office</span></span></div></div><div class="asset_browser collapsed"><div class="current_context hidden"><span class="search_archive"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="clear not_inline the_asset_uploader NS_2dofdi0yto"><div class="uploader_package"><div class="meta_data hidden">&nbsp;</div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="main_text">Former Atlanta Brave Otis Nixon is in trouble with the law.<br /><br />The former center-fielder for the Braves was arrested just after midnight on Saturday for felony possession of cocaine and possession of a drug-related object, according to a police report from the Cherokee Sheriff's Office. <br /><br />He remains at the Cherokee County Adult Detention Center on a $11,880 bond.<br /><br />Nixon, who had a 66-year-old female passenger in the truck with him, was pulled over after Cherokee County dispatchers put out a be-on-the-lookout for a possible intoxicated driver traveling in a red Dodge Ram truck northbound on Interstate 575.<br /><br />Dispatch received the tip from a caller who witnessed the truck allegedly weave over the roadway.<br />An investigator with the sheriff's office pulled the truck over near the Airport Road interchange and asked Nixon to step out of the vehicle.<br /><br />When Nixon got out of the car, the investigator discovered a "small rock substance suspected to be crack cocaine" on the driver seat of the truck, according to the incident report.<br /><br />The report also notes deputies discovered drug paraphernalia that appeared to be a pipe in Nixon's pants pocket. <br /><br />Nixon was given an breathalyzer for alcohol, but it came back negative. He was also found not to be under the influence of crack cocaine or any other stimulants after deputies conducted field sobriety tests.<br /><br />Nixon allegedly told deputies the drugs and the pipe didn't belong to him, but belonged to his son. Nixon later told deputies his son used the truck and "must have left the crack cocaine in his truck" and he planned to dispose of the pipe. <br /><br />Deputies found no illegal drugs or weapons on Nixon's female companion and the woman told deputies she was "unaware of the illegal drugs and Otis was just driving her home."<br />Once deputies collected evidence, the passenger was allowed to drive Nixon's vehicle away from the scene. </div></div>Stephen Guy Hardinhttps://plus.google.com/100130587427333595998noreply@blogger.com0